Amazon’s Prime Day sale isn’t enough to make Indians forget Flipkart

As Amazon’s much-advertised Prime Day sale kicks off today (July 15) in India, its homegrown rival Flipkart might give it a tough fight.

While the Seattle-based company is on top of customers’ mind during the two-day mega sale, a significant portion of buyer intent is still skewed in favour of its Bengaluru-headquartered competitor, a recent survey has shown.

Following its big-bang advertising, Amazon commanded a brand recall of 62% among e-commerce shoppers in India, according to RedSeer. The market research and advisory firm conducted 150 customer surveys and in-depth interviews.

While half of the customers surveyed plan to shop on Amazon, only four in 10 customers plan to make purchases on Flipkart, the survey showed. Coinciding with Amazon’s Prime Day, Flipkart will host its own Big Shopping Days sale from July 15-18. In a couple of months, it’ll be time for it flagship Big Billion Days sale event, too.

Amazon’s 48 hours sale, taking place in 18 countries, is the longest since the first Prime Day in 2015. Overall, 59% of Amazon Prime shoppers are planning to make a purchase worth an average amount of Rs5,300 ($77) this year, according to RedSeer.

Still selling

In the face of stiff competition, Amazon’s advertising push has not fallen flat. So much so that 100% of the subscribers of its Prime membership programme are aware of the sale, RedSeer found. While it relied mostly on social media and digital channels last year, Amazon ran a TV campaign this time around.

During the promotional event, sales are expected to more than double compared to non-sale days.

To match the consumer enthusiasm, sellers are also upping their game, RedSeer’s expert interviews and 50 seller interviews revealed. Around 94% of Amazon sellers expect to take part in the Prime Day sale.

Large appliance sellers are especially in for a field day—that’s the category maximum Indian shoppers plan to make purchases in.